New Hampshire-Born Filmmaker Michael Maglaras Introduces New Film at the Hood Museum of Art: “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show”

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On Friday, January 10, 2014 the New Hampshire premiere of 217 Films’ new documentary “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” will be introduced by New Hampshire-born filmmaker Michael Maglaras. Maglaras grew up in Dover, New Hampshire and this is his fifth film.

Michael Maglaras of 217 Films

Hanover, New Hampshire (PRWEB)December 31, 2013

The New Hampshire premiere of 217 Films’ new documentary “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” will be introduced by New Hampshire-born filmmaker Michael Maglaras. Maglaras grew up in Dover, New Hampshire and this is his fifth film. http://www.two17films.com/biography.php

“The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” will screen at the Hood Museum of Art on Friday, January 10 at 6:30 p.m. Excerpts can be viewed at this link: http://vimeo.com/66408225.

In 1913, The International Exhibition of Modern Art, known as the 1913 Armory Show, changed the face of art in America...for it was where many Americans had their first taste of a kind of art that did not look like anything they had ever seen. By entering through the doors of an armory between 25th and 26th Streets in New York City, they entered through the doors of the Modern Era.

From February 17 until March 15, 1913, Americans by the thousands pushed their way through the doors of the 69th Regiment Armory to experience Modern Art for the first time. What they saw annoyed and infuriated some...and captivated, delighted, and inspired many.

President Theodore Roosevelt, upon visiting the exhibition, called the most modern of these works “repellent”...and that was just the beginning of the controversy surrounding this historic show.

“The more I dug deeply into the history of the Armory Show,” said director Michael Maglaras, who also wrote the film and narrates it, “the more it became clear to me that, with the Armory Show, we had truly entered the American century: the century of our greatest achievements as a nation and the beginning of our preeminence on the world stage.”

What resulted from these four weeks of mass exposure to European artists such as Cezanne, Renoir, Van Gogh, and the upstart Marcel Duchamp with his “Nude Descending a Staircase” as well as such Americans as Marsden Hartley, John Marin, and Charles Sheeler, changed how Americans came to understand their own times.

“The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show” features works by more than 60 American and European painters. The film probes deeply into the history of how the show was organized; examines the critical organizational efforts of American artists such as Arthur B. Davies, Walter Pach, and Walt Kuhn; and explores the impact that the show had on collectors of art as well as ordinary citizens.

The Sacramento Bee called Michael Maglaras a filmmaker of “Bergman-like gravitas.” His films have been described as “virtuoso filmmaking” (National Gallery of Art) “alive and fresh” (Art New England) “elegiac and insightful” (Naples Daily News) "stunning" (David Berona) and "magnificent" (Judith Regan, Sirius XM).

What: New Hampshire premiere of 217 Films’ “The Great Confusion: The 1913 Armory Show.” The filmmakers will be in attendance and introduce the screening.